Drumstick Libraries

Drumstick is a set of MIDI libraries using C++/Qt idioms and style. Includes a C++ wrapper around the ALSA library sequencer interface: ALSA sequencer provides software support for MIDI technology on Linux. A complementary library provides classes for processing SMF (Standard MIDI files: .MID/.KAR), RIFF RMID (*.rmi) and Cakewalk (.WRK) file formats. A multiplatform realtime MIDI I/O library and a GUI Widgets libraries are also provided for Linux, Windows, and Mac OSX.

Currently, there are four libraries designed to work together if/when needed:

• Drumstick::ALSA is a Linux only C++/Qt wrapper around the ALSA Sequencer API. ALSA sequencer provides software support for MIDI technology on Linux.
• Drumstick::File provides easy multiplatform file I/O for Standard MIDI Files (.mid), RIFF RMID (.rmi) and Cakewalk (.wrk) file formats.
• Drumstick::RT is a realtime MIDI I/O library with pluggable backends. It uses Drumstick::ALSA on Linux, and other native frameworks on macOS and Windows.
• Drumstick::Widgets contains MIDI widgets, including a Virtual Piano used by VMPK among other programs.

Drumstick::ALSA was the first library developed under the Drumstick umbrella, and is available only on Linux, because ALSA Sequencer is an exclusive Linux technology. For realtime I/O applications you can use the Drumstick::RT library which is multiplatform, and only depends on Drumstick::ALSA in Linux for its ALSA Sequencer backend. Other multiplatform backends are: Network/ipMIDI and Fluidsynth. The Sonivox backend needs PulseAudio, which is available on most Unix systems.

There are ten examples in the source tree, under the utils/ directory:

• drumgrid: GUI program. Simple drum patterns. Depends on Drumstick::ALSA.
• dumpmid: CLI program. Prints received MIDI events. Depends on Drumstick::ALSA. See also kmidimon
• dumprmi: CLI program. Prints and converts RIFF MIDI files. Depends on Drumstick::File.
• dumpsmf: CLI program. Prints standard MIDI files. Depends on Drumstick::File.
• dumpwrk: CLI program. Prints Cakewalk/Sonar MIDI files. Depends on Drumstick::File. See also wrk2mid
• guiplayer: GUI program. Plays SMF and Cakewalk files. Depends on Drumstick::ALSA and Drumstick::File. See also dmidiplayer
• metronome: CLI program. Simple command line MIDI metronome. Depends on Drumstick::ALSA. See also kmetronome
• playsmf: CLI program. SMF player. Depends on Drumstick::ALSA and Drumstick::File.
• sysinfo: CLI program. Prints information about the ALSA sequencer subsystem. Depends on Drumstick::ALSA.
• vpiano: GUI program. A simple Virtual Piano Keyboard GUI application. Depends on Drumstick::RT. See also VMPK.

And you can also see independent applications using this library:

• dmidiplayer: Multiplatform MIDI file player with many features.
• VMPK: Multiplatform Virtual MIDI Piano Keyboard.
• kmetronome: MIDI metronome for Linux.
• kmidimon: MIDI monitor for Linux.
• wrk2mid: Command line utility to convert WRK files to SMF.

Here is a diagram about the relationship between the libraries and applications:

Here is another view in table format of the relationships:

The main web site of this project is drumstick.sourceforge.io

See also:

• Downloads
• Online documentation
• Build and install documentation